crepuscular

crepuscular: This word was used twice in something I just read. I had no idea what it meant, although I'm sure I'd seen it before. Twilight. Somehow twilight just doesn't seem like "crepuscular." Crepuscular should mean twisted, wrinkled, and old, looking like Scrooge or some other Dickens devil.


Crepuscular Cre*pus"cu*lar (-k?-l?r), Crepusculous
\Cre*pus"cu*lous\ (-l?s), a. [Cf. F. cr['e]pusculaire.]
1. Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; hence, imperfectly
clear or luminous.
[1913 Webster]

This semihistorical and crepuscular period. --Sir G.
C. Lewis.
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2. (Zool.) Flying in the twilight or evening, or before
sunrise; -- said certain birds and insects.
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Others feed only in the twilight, as bats and owls,
and are called crepuscular. --Whewell.
[1913 Webster]

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

crepuscular
adj : like twilight; dim; "the evening's crepuscular charm"

-- From WordNet (r) 2.0